High school athletes competing at a cross-country meet at Etobicoke’s Centennial Park were diverted onto a hastily altered course when organizers were told at the last minute the race conflicted with Ford Fest.

Organizers of the Peter Morris Cross Country Early Bird Invitational, a popular annual race for more than 500 students in Grades 9 to 12, were forced to lay out a new route for the Sept. 20 event even though they had obtained a permit in April — three months before organizers of Ford Fest, Mayor Rob Ford’s community barbecue, applied for a permit.

The city says the conflict arose through a “staff oversight” in which the high school meet was incorrectly entered into the city’s computerized booking system as requiring a “stadium” rather than “parkland.” As a result, when Ford Fest organizers applied for a permit to use the same parkland, the computer system failed to flag the two events as a double booking.

“Permit staff only found the problem three days prior to the Ford Fest, which did not allow adequate time to reschedule and/or cancel,” said Mark Lawson, manager of customer service at Parks, Forestry and Recreation. “We are addressing this internally to ensure that this type of occurrence doesn’t repeat itself.”

Lawson stressed that his department “received no pressure whatsoever” from Ford Fest organizers, nor did his staff inform them of the conflict with the cross country meet.

“I would not know if [Ford Fest organizers] were aware of it from other sources,” Lawson said.

The mayor did not respond to several interview requests from the Star.

Bob Mandl, a history teacher and cross-country coach at Westview Centennial Secondary School, brought his senior boys team to the meet. He says he immediately became concerned when he was informed the event had been “bumped” and that the course had to be changed to accommodate the daytime setup of Ford Fest.

“Ford proclaims himself to be a champion of high school athletics,” said Mandl, referring to the mayor’s long history of coaching high school football in Etobicoke. “Ford Fest was not a city event; it was clearly a campaigning event.”

Organizers were forced to move the course from an open grassy area near Centennial Park Arena, where Ford Fest was being set up, to a new route that required students to run down a steep ski hill — a change Mandl says posed risks of serious injury to the athletes.

“If I had known they would be running down the ski hill, I would not have brought the team, especially this early in the season,” Mandl said. “Going downhill is usually something courses try to avoid. It’s very hard on the knees and there is a risk of falling … Honestly, I wouldn’t have exposed my athletes to the injury risk there.”

Jason Wood, one of the meet’s two conveners and a teacher at Neil McNeil High School, said the adjustments to the course “weren’t that big of a deal” and that the event “went on without a hitch.”

The meet’s other convenor, Eddie Raposo, a teacher at Michael Power High School, declined to comment.

The September Ford Fest was one of two barbecue-pep rallies for the Ford Nation faithful put on by the mayor this year. The other took place in July, at Scarborough’s Thomson Memorial Park. In previous years, the event was held in the backyard of his mother’s Etobicoke home.

The Centennial Park event, which took place in the evening, featured free beer, food, a stage, live music and midway rides. Organizers said they expected more than 10,000 people to show up.

The mayor has found himself at the centre of conflicts between competing public and private interests in the past.

Last November, two TTC buses were taken out of afternoon rush hour service — leaving dozens of passengers stranded — to pick up Ford’s high school football team.

It was later revealed that Ford called TTC CEO Andy Byford’s cellphone before the buses arrived at Etobicoke’s Father Henry Carr high school field, following a confrontation between a coach and referee. The buses were dispatched at the request of police to take the Don Bosco Eagles, the team Ford coached at the time, back to their own school.

The mayor also faced criticism about his use of city resources and staff from his office for his football coaching before he was banned by the Toronto Catholic District School Board in May from coaching football at any Catholic school in the city.

In September 2012, Ford faced questions over his decision to personally ask city officials to undertake road and drainage repairs in front of his family’s company, Deco Labels and Tags, in time for the company’s 50th anniversary.

The mayor defended his actions, saying he has made many repair requests to the city for other businesses and homeowners.

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